#59 宮本輝『骸骨ビルの庭』
私の日記の部分のあらかたは削除しようかとも考えたのですが、それがないと骸骨ビルで生きた人々について余計な説明文を加筆しなければならないのではないかと思い、あえてそのままにしたことを申し添えておきます。
Vocabulary:
宮本輝 みやもとてる Miyamoto Teru (author, 1947-)
日記 にっき diary
部分 ぶぶん part, passage
あらかた for the most part (粗方)
削除する さくじょする to delete
余計な よけいな unnecessary, extra, superfluous
説明文 せつめいぶん description, explanation (in writing)
加筆する かひつする to add (in writing), to revise (text)
申し添える もうしそえる to add (humble form of 言い添える)
Grammar & notes:
骸骨ビル
This is simply the nickname that people from the neighborhood use to refer to the building (which is described as an old English-style three-story building made with reinforced concrete in a different passage). It isn’t a normal term in Japanese, so I decided to leave it as is in the translation. Having said that, the word 骸骨 (がいこつ) is a word that is used regularly and therefore worth remembering.
あえて
This is often an awkward phrase to translate into English, but means something like “going against what you would expect me to do in this situation, I did….” Here it adds the nuance of “even though it might have been better to delete the passages from my diary because they don’t provide the reader with any information of interest, I still decided to leave them in.”
そのままにする
This means something along the lines of “keeping things the way they are.”
Translation:
I also thought about getting rid of most of the passages from my own diary, but realized that if they were missing I’d have to add unnecessary descriptions of the people living in the skeleton building, so I should add that I decided to leave them in.
Amazon.jp link for the book I used:
Koppajust now
Thank you so much. Your timing is excellent, because I just started to write a diary in Japanese. I also paste your text in google translate, just to hear an audio file. Maybe this is too much to ask, but this could be an idea in the future to add audio, if possible? I then try to read our text aloud mimicking the sounds. I found your newsletters so useful in being able to express myself more in an non textbook way. So once again thank you. I also recommended your newsletter to my fellow Japanese learners.